32. "Silent" Wednesday

Dr. Doug Bookman

Notes: The record of the gospels moves from late Tuesday to Thursday afternoon, omitting entirely any explicit record of the events of Wednesday. (It's for this reason that those who insist that the Triumphal Entry occurred on Sunday and the crucifixion on Friday - speak of this day as "silent Wednesday.") Jesus doubtless remained in Bethany. But it was a busy day, as elaborate preparation was made by Jesus's enemies for the arrest and trial (all designed to get Jesus on the cross before the city woke up, as His enemies and the Romans remembered the wild-eyed devotion to Him they had seen on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday), and as Jesus made preparation for the room in which He would keep the Feast with His disciples.

*It is virtually impossible to determine when the words of Jesus recorded in John 12:37-50 were spoken, and it is virtually certain that they were not spoken on Wednesday of the Passion Week. However, they are placed at this point by the apostle John because he regards them as an appropriate way to summarize the first section of his gospel ("He came unto His own and His own received Him not") and to introduce the last part of the gospel account ("having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end"). Read those verses in that way - as a Spirit-breathed transition from the period of Jesus's offer of Himself to the nation to the record of His offer of Himself as the lamb of God.

Adapted from the Life of Christ study notes of Dr. Doug Bookman, professor of New Testament Exposition at Shepherds Theological Seminary (used by permission).